Fisher 0-5 Wingate & Finchley - I don't feel pressure. Pressure is paying the bills, paying the mortgage and making sure there's food on the table, says Fisher boss Dean Harrison

Fisher 0 – 5 Wingate & Finchley
Location	Champion Hill Stadium, Dog Kennel Hill, Edgar Kail Way, East Dulwich, London SE22 8BD
Kickoff	09/11/2015 19:45

FISHER  0-5  WINGATE & FINCHLEY
London Senior Cup (Sponsored by Coventry Scaffolding) First Round
Monday 9^th November 2015
Stephen McCartney reports from Champion Hill Stadium

FISHER manager Dean Harrison says he takes full responsibility of his side’s thrashing by Wingate & Finchley in the London Senior Cup.

 
 

Wingate & Finchley fielded six players that started their 4-3 home win over Farnborough on Saturday, a result that has them in the top seven in the Ryman Premier League, while Harrison made several changes and the decision backfired on him.

It took Wingate & Finchley 26 minutes to open the floodgates when central defender Leon Solomon scored from 35-yards, before midfielder Reece Tison-Lascaris hooked in a second.

Poor Fisher leaked three goals in the second half.  Rob Laney scored his eighth goal of the season before Ahmet Rifat came off the bench to score, just before striker Lee Barney also netted his eight goal of the season as Wingate & Finchley outclassed their struggling Southern Counties East Football League hosts to set up a home tie against fellow north-Londoners Cockfosters in the last sixteen.

“Not good enough!,” was Harrison’s assessment as Fisher have now suffered six straight defeats.

“Got beaten by a better side basically. Better players, better team as a unit than us and it showed on the night.

“It was a totally different class, (they had) some good players and to be fair I made probably five or six changes tonight from my usual side. I’ve got a big game Saturday against Tunbridge Wells and I used tonight as an opportunity to look at some players on the fringe, players that have been knocking on the door asking for a chance, so I take responsibility for that because I changed it completely.

“I know the London Cup is not something we’re going to win realistically and I’ve got players that need a rest and some players I need to look at so that’s what I did.

“That’s no excuses but that’s the truth! I’ve got a second string team out there and that was my decision to do that.

“Some of my boys aint quite ready, some of them ain’t fit, some of them aint intelligent enough, some of them didn’t work hard enough. That’s what I learnt tonight because although I weren’t expecting to realistically win the game tonight, I was expecting a better performance.”

Wingate & Finchley, who were playing an effective wing-back system, started the game on the front foot, but it was Fisher who went close to scoring after only 148 seconds.

Midfielder Emiliano Hysi was given the chance to run at the visitors’ defence before hitting a right-footed drive from 30-yards, which deflected past the left-hand post.

Harrison said: “He was unlucky. He’s a good player Emilano. He’s got lots of ability and he can get at defenders and he’s not shy to shoot. He scored the other week against Greenwich. He’s alright, he’s a good lad.”

Man-of-the-match Solomon released left-wing back Alfie Bartam through on goal but he dragged his shot across goal and past the far post, despite right wing-back Mark Goodman’s attempt to keep the ball in play.

Fisher called Wingate & Finchley keeper Jack Metcalfe into making an eighteenth minute save.

Jamie Taylor played the ball out to winger Taylor Thomas, who hit a speculative right-footed drive towards the bottom left-hand corner from 35-yards, but the keeper got down low to his right to make the save.

Thomas impressed early on but like the rest of his team mates, disappeared as the game went on.

Harrison said: “Taylor’s got good quality, another who is decent on the ball, just need to be a little bit fitter. He’s got bags of quality.”

Wingate & Finchley should have tested Fisher keeper Ade Adeniyi when Joe Sharpe swung in a free-kick from the right and Fisher failed to clear their lines and the ball dropped to Barney inside the box, the striker taking a touch before curling his left-footed shot over the bar from 12-yards.

Fisher came close to grabbing the lead in the 24^th minute.

Hysi fed Thomas down the left and he cut inside but his shot sailing towards the far corner was grabbed by Metcalfe as he moved to his left.

But Wingate & Finchley deservedly opened the scoring with 25 minutes and 59 seconds on the clock.

Not for the first time during the game, Solomon picked up the ball and ran with it out of defence and Fisher gave him the chance to unleash a right-footed speculative drive from 35-yards which crept into the bottom left-hand corner, beating Adeniyi’s despairing dive.

“I thought the keeper should’ve done better to be honest,” admitted Harrison.

“It was at his near post and he could’ve got more on it.  Having said that, I thought Ade didn’t have a bad game tonight. He made some good saves, especially in the second half, but I thought he should’ve done better then.”

Wingate & Finchley’s right-back Marc Weatherstone released Goodman down the right and after beating Fisher left-back Besfort Sadiku his low centre was cut out by Adeniyi at his near post.

But Fisher were facing a first round elimination when Wingate & Finchley doubled their lead after 37 minutes.

Harrison was clearly upset when his defence switched off from a short corner routine from the right.

Sharpe played the ball short to Barney, who crossed towards the far post.  The ball was headed back across goal by towering presence Daniel Brown and Tison-Lascaris hooked his shot across the keeper to find the bottom far corner of the net from four-yards.

Harrison said: “Didn’t get out to the short corner quick enough. We reacted slowly like we did all night to everything.  I thought we reacted slowly in the middle. We reacted slowly to the short corner.  We didn’t stop them taking quick free-kicks.  We were poor mentally tonight.”

The dominant visitors’ went close to increasing their lead when Laney cut the ball back to Barney, who hit a first time shot across the keeper and the ball rolled agonisingly just past the foot of the far post.

Brown played a ball into Laney’s feet, who played the ball in behind the Fisher defence to put Barney through on goal, but Adeniyi rushed off his line to make a smart block at his near post.

And from Sharpe’s resulting corner from the right, Laney bullet header was cleared off the line.

When asked his thoughts at half-time, Harrison replied: “I thought we needed to work harder. We needed to work harder in the middle. We weren’t close enough to their three in the middle. We needed to hold it up better up front and get the boys in to play. We needed to be smarter on the ball and we needed to just defend better as a unit basically and do the basics. We weren’t doing the basics.”

Wingate & Finchley created the first chance of the second half when Goodman cut the ball back to Brown, who played the ball into Barney’s feet, who turned his man and skied his shot on the turn over the Fisher crossbar from 15-yards, from the right-hand side of the penalty area after only 124 seconds.

Harrison brought on his leading goalscorer, Travis Gregory, at half-time and the striker went close to pulling a goal back.

Thomas and Hysi linked up and played the ball out to Gregory on the left.  He waited for support from overlapping left-back Sadiku before playing the ball into his path, before Gregory received the ball back and cut inside and from the edge of the penalty area dragged his shot just past the foot of the near post.

Harrison was full of praise for a striker on four goals for the club this season.

“Travis is a great player. I wanted to rest him tonight but the way things were going first half, I thought I’d sling him on and give him 45 minutes, just loosen him up for Saturday.  You know what you’re going to get from Travis, he’s quality.”

But that was the best that it got for a struggling Fisher side that lacked togetherness out on the pitch, once again playing like a team of strangers.

Solomon threw the ball to Barney, who swept the ball out to an unmarked Goodman, whose right-footed angled drive was beaten away by Adeniyi to his left.

Fisher right-back Robert Curtis missed a decent chance when he glanced his free header past the post after Thomas’ floated in a corner from the right.

It was no surprise when Wingate & Finchley added a third goal in the 64^th minute.

Solomon, who relished starting moves with precise passing out of defence, found Tison-Lascaris, who slipped the ball through to Laney, who slid his left-footed shot which clippedthe inside of the left-hand post before flashing along the goal-line and going in the opposite corner.

Harrison said: “We got caught flat on that, got caught flat and the boy pulled off and it’s not good enough!”

When asked what was going through his mind at three-nil down, the Fisher boss replied: “Keep it tight! Don’t let it pull apart, just keep working hard. 

“You can see the boys heads drop as soon as it goes 3-0.  You know the games behind you really, against opposition like this. 

“Just keep doing the right things and work hard.  You could see the boys heads were dropping a little bit.  They stopped communicating. I’ve got a lot of boys out there who haven’t played together before and that showed!”

Bartram shaped up to curl his shot around the far post from the right corner of the penalty area after Laney and Barney linked up in Fisher’s final third.

Wingate & Finchley scored their fourth goal with fourteen minutes left.

Bartram swung in a corner from the right and Adenyi made a smart block from Weatherstone, but substitute Rifat steered his shot into the bottom right-hand corner after Fisher failed to clear their lines in a scramble.

Harrison added: “I counted we had six bodies in there against two of their players when the ball was bouncing about in there.  No-one’s taken responsibility and got the block in, so we’ve need to show more desire defensively.”

Fisher capitulated and within a minute leaked in the fifth goal of the night.

Solomon, this time, found himself out on the left wing and whipped in a deep cross which cut out the Fisher back-line and picked out Barney, who ghosted in unmarked at the far post to slip his shot into the bottom near corner.

Harrison added: “He ghosted in at the back and he got in between or left centre half (Jack Martin) and our left-back (Sadiku), who weren’t close enough for their third goal and they weren’t close enough for their fifth goal.  No-one’s taking responsibility there, a lack of communication.”

Solomon played a give-and-go with Brown down the left and cut into the Fisher penalty area before lashing his left-footed shot high up into the side netting.

Solomon then played another fine pass out of defence to put substitute Karl Oliyide in behind the Fisher defence, on course to net his eighth goal of the season.

But his low shot flashed just past the foot of the near post, with goalkeeper Adenyi diving the same way in an attempt to make the save.

Fisher created the last chance of the game when Curtis whipped in a deep cross from the right and Gregory cut inside and dragged his shot just past the far post.

Fisher are now out of all of their cup competitions and must spend the rest of the season attempting to avoid relegation.

Harrison said: “We’ve got to learn from it. That’s what I said in there. Listen, they’re a good unit, they’re a good side, they’re two league’s higher than us. They’re good quality players and we need to learn. Look at what they were doing on the ball, defensively as well and we need to learn and move on. We move forward.

“It is what it is. I take responsibility for changing the team.  The league is more important to me this year. It wasn’t a cup that we were expecting to win and I wanted to rest players tonight so I take full responsibility.”

Harrison takes his side to 12^th placed Tunbridge Wells on Saturday looking to end their miserable run of form.

He said: “We need a win Saturday, don’t we? Tunbridge Wells is not an easy place to go, we all know that, so we need to go there with a bit of desire, with a bit of enthusiasm, bit of togetherness and we need to get three points.

“He’s (Jason Bourne) has just taken over, they’ll be working hard for their new gaffer as teams always do when a new gaffer comes in so we know it won’t be easy.”

Fisher are in the bottom four with 12 points from as many games, five points above basement side Croydon.

“We have two or three games in hand. We’ve missed a few games down to not being in the cups and we haven’t had fixtures.

“If we win those games in hand we fly straight up to the top half of the table so it’s down to us to get points on the table.

“It looks worse than it is. We just need to start getting the results and we’re back up there.”

When asked whether there is pressure for him to turn things around, Harrison replied: “I don’t feel pressure. Pressure’s paying bills and paying the mortgage  and making sure there’s food on the table. This is secondary. There’s no pressure. We’ve got no budget and we’re doing the best we can with what we’ve got. There’s a long way to go, no pressure, I love it!”

But Harrison continues the search for a match day physio and the club are willing to fork out £40 per match for one.

He said: “Still waiting! I’ve had a physio for two games of the season. We’re trying. There’s 40 quid a game for a physio.  We cannot get one for love or money, which makes a massive difference.  Players can’t have a rub down before the game. I’ve got players with injuries who don’t know what it actually is or how long they’re going to be out for.  It’s tough. It’s really hard at the minute, really hard.

“So if there’s any physio’s out there, give us a call!”  (Email Deanaharrison@hotmail.co.uk).

Fisher: Ade Adeniyi, Robert Curtis, Besfort Sadiku, Jamie Taylor, Jack Martin, Daniel Flemming, Taylor Thomas (Tyrell McLeod-Bentley 67), Alfie Nunn (Max Rothwell 79), Alex Bolt (Travis Gregory 46), Emiliano Hysi, Frazer Bent.
Subs: Reion McFarlane, Denzil Kobia

Booked: Jamie Turner 29

Wingate & Finchley: Jack Metcalfe, Mark Goodman, Alfie Bartram, Marc Weatherstone, Marcus Rose, Leon Solomon, Joe Sharpe (Ahmet Rifat 72), Daniel Brown, Lee Barney, Reece Tison-Lascaris (Karl Oliyide 68), Rob Laney.
Subs: Bradley Marriott, Karl Stevenson

Goals: Leon Solomon 26, Reece Tison-Lascaris 37, Rob Laney 64, Ahmet Rifat 76, Lee Barney 77

Attendance: 71
Referee: Mr Andrey Lashchikov (Clapham Junction, London SW11)
Assistants: Mr Larry Smith (Camden, London NW3) & Mr Josh Bratt (Westferry, London E14)